[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 178 (Thursday, December 20, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H10949-H10950]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
INDIAN TRUST MANAGEMENT REFORM
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Simpson). Under a previous order of the
House, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) is recognized for 5
minutes.
Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, the U.S. Government has repeatedly
committed to a trustee relationship with the American Indian nations.
Defined by treaties, statutes, and interpreted by the courts, the trust
relationship requires the Federal Government to exercise the highest
degree of care with tribal and Indian lands and resources.
At first, the Federal trust responsibility served to protect tribal
lands and tribal communities from intrusion. However, in a push to
acquire tribal lands and turn Indians into farmers, the Federal
Government imposed reservation allotment programs pursuant to the
General Allotment Act of 1887. Under these policies, the selling and
leasing of allotted lands and inherited interests became primary
functions of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Tribes lost 90 million acres
and much of the remaining 54 million acres was opened to non-Indian use
by lease. In sum, the Federal Government took the trust responsibility
for Indian land upon itself in order to gain the benefit of vast tribal
lands and resources that were guaranteed by treaty, executive order,
and agreements for exclusive use by the tribes.
It is widely known, Mr. Speaker, that the BIA grossly mismanaged and
squandered billions of dollars worth of resources that should have gone
to the benefit of often impoverished American Indians. Today, the
Secretary of the Interior is faced by a mandate from Congress to clean
up the accounting and management of the Indian trust funds, and by a
lawsuit alleging a great failure by the Secretary's trust
responsibility for Indian lands. In response, the Secretary has
proposed a plan to create a new Bureau of Indian Trust Asset Management
and remove the trust functions from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Mr. Speaker, in my opinion, this proposal will profoundly affect the
BIA's management of 54 million acres of Indian lands, the
administration of trust funds derived from those lands, and nearly
every aspect of economic development, agriculture, and land management
within Indian country.
I am greatly concerned that this plan is repeating the failure of the
many trust reform efforts of the past. Recently, 193 Indian tribes
unanimously adopted a resolution opposing this reorganization and
transfer of the responsibilities of the BIA. I strongly believe that
this reorganization effort cannot go forward until the Department
consults with Indian tribes in the development of a business processes
plan for trust reform, a clear plan for performing the basic trust
functions of accounting, collections, recordkeeping inspections
enforcement and resource management. The plan must include policies,
procedures and controls.
The fundamental and consistent criticism of the Department's trust
reform efforts over the last decade has been the failure to develop a
plan for these
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business operations of trust management. Instead, the DOI has a well-
documented record of making short-term cosmetic changes in response to
court-imposed deadlines or congressional inquiries.
Mr. Speaker, it is notable that this criticism, a lack of structural
foundation, is exactly the same as has been leveled against the
Department's development of the Trust Asset and Accounting Management
System. All tribal leaders strongly support trust reform and want to
work constructively with the Department and with Congress to ensure
sound management of tribal assets. In fact, it is the tribes that have
the greatest interest in ensuring that tribal assets and resources are
properly managed.
In this spirit, I will submit for the Record the following principles
of the National Congress of American Indians, which should guide the
Department of the Interior in its trust reform efforts. Secretary
Norton clearly needs help in attending to the concerns of Native
Americans, and I would hope these principles would be taken into
consideration by her.
I. Put first things first. Creating a new agency does not create
trust reform, and we unequivocally oppose this proposal as currently
framed. Tribal leadership urges the Secretary to stop the BITAM
reorganization effort until there has been an opportunity to actively
engage and consult with tribes in developing an alternative plan for
the business processes of trust management in an open and consensus-
based process. Once the Department, working with tribes, has a clear
definition of the tasks that must be accomplished, then any staff
reorganization should be based on this business processes plan.
II. Tribes can help solve this problem, but the Secretary must
consult and collaborate with the tribal leadership on a government-to-
government, sovereign-to-sovereign basis. Announce and defend is not
consultation. The Secretary and the tribes should agree that the
upcoming regional meetings should be to consult on the scope of the
issues to be addressed. The scoping meetings planned at present are too
fast and too few, and should be extended to cover all regions, with an
extended timeline. A Tribal Leaders Task Force on Trust Reform should
be created and funded, and consultation should include the IIM account
holders. Consultation must continue throughout the trust reform effort,
and the discussions must be marked by some fundamental ground rules.
The tribes insist that the Department agree to deal in good faith,
avoid self-dealing, and commit to full disclosure of relevant and
material information (including that relating to known failures and
losses).
III. In the past twelve years, Interior has paid more than a billion
dollars in judgments and settlements for its failures to protect the
trust assets. The costs of continued failure will far outstrip the
costs of doing it right. Congress must fund trust reform, and the IIM
beneficiaries and tribes should not bear the burden of paying to fix
the trust system. We therefore oppose the Department's proposed
reprogramming of $300 million within the Fiscal 2002 budget from the
BIA budget to fund the proposed BITAM, and any other proposal to remove
funds from the BIA for this purpose.
IV. The Secretary of Interior should come forward in an honest and
forthright way to discuss ways of settling on historic account
balances. If she cannot do this, then Congress must address this issue
substantively.
V. Do no harm. Many tribes and BIA field offices have been successful
in establishing sound trust management for their lands pursuant to the
tribal self-determination policy. These successful systems should not
be harmed or modified by the trust reform efforts without tribal
consent.
VI. Successful development and resource management in Indian Country
are linked to Indian control. The future of trust management includes
increased protection and tribal control over lands and resources, and a
federal system that provides technical assistance and trust oversight
on resource management in a flexible arrangement that is driven by self
determination through the special circumstances, legal and treaty
rights of each tribe and reservation. Different regions in Indian
Country and their specialization in grazing, timber, oil & gas,
commercial real estate, agriculture, fisheries, water, etc., will all
require different systems that must reflect the unique needs of each.
VII. The survival of tribal cultures and traditions is dependent upon
the continuance of tribal lands and resources as durable means to live
and be Indian. One role of the trustee is to protect the long-term
viability of tribal lands and resources and ensure that the actions of
the trustee are consistent with tribal control of the use and
development of Indian lands.
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